BITCOIN STARTUPS FACING BACKLASH FOR ABANDONING THE TECHNOLOGY

Patrick Manasse

MEDIA BACKLASHDuring the highest of hype surrounding Bitcoin, multiple startups came to fruition based on the technology.!Recently however, several of those companies have been turning their back on Bitcoin and focusing more on general financial technology applications. !This has sparked a flame of backlash from media sources like The Guardian, and Business Insider, accusing companies like Bitpay, Circle and Uphold of abandoning the technology.

MEDIA BACKLASHThe Guardian criticized former bitcoin-oriented companies, calling their retracting support “embarrassing”.

The Guardian specifically blasted former bit coin wallet and exchange platform Upload, previously known as Bitreserve.

MEDIA BACKLASH

According to the Guardian, Uphold has gone so far as to imply that the “bit” in their former name did not refer to bitcoin. Before this week, the only form of currency accepted by the company was bitcoin.

MEDIA BACKLASHCircle, a Goldman Sachs backed company that makes a mobile bitcoin wallet, recently began accepting US dollars and told Business Insider that bitcoin was simply their first use-case of their technology.

MEDIA BACKLASH

According to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, the future of the company lies in the behind-the-scenes technology that makes sending money as easy as sending an email.

“BLOCKCHAIN”

Blockchain - public ledger of all bitcoin transactions in the network.

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Industry CEOs argue that this technology - the underlying concept that makes Bitcoin work - is how fintech companies can move forward.

ADOPTION CURVE PROBLEM

• Every new, game-changing development in technology has an adoption curve whether it’s the internet or email.

• Jan Hammer, a venture capitalist at Index Ventures and investor in Bitpay retains some hope however, despite bitcoin’s slow start.

ADOPTION CURVE PROBLEM

• “I guess contrary to public expectation around bitcoin, and more broadly around the blockchain space, adoption has been slower [than expected].” said Hammer in an interview with Business Insider.

THE BACKLASH CONTINUES

• The Guardian remains critical however.

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